Security that
doesn't trust itself.
Most products ask you to trust their servers. PulsVault is built so you never have to. Layered keys, dual factors, and per-vault isolation mean the security of your data never depends on us behaving — it depends on mathematics.
The Key Hierarchy
Four keys. One never leaves your device.
Your data is protected by a chain of derived keys. Each one is unlocked by the one above it, and the chain begins — and ends — in your browser.
Password-Derived Secret
PDSMaster Password + saltStretched from your Master Password with PBKDF2 and your personal salt — entirely inside your browser. It is cached in session memory and is never transmitted to our servers.
Key Encryption Key
KEKPDS + Access KeyDerived from your PDS combined with your machine-generated Access Key over 600,000 PBKDF2 iterations. Without both factors, the KEK cannot be reconstructed.
User Master Key
UMKUnwrapped by KEKThe root key that unlocks your account. It is wrapped by your KEK and only ever exists in memory after a successful unlock — then immediately wiped.
Data Encryption Key
DEKPer-vault, wrapped by UMKEvery vault gets its own independent, random 256-bit DEK wrapped by your UMK. Compromise of one vault is mathematically isolated from every other vault.
Changing your Master Password re-wraps a single key — your UMK — and never re-encrypts a single vault item.
Defense in Depth
Every layer assumes the others might fail
A weak password, a stolen token, a compromised server — each is contained by the layer beneath it. No single point of failure can expose your secrets.
Dual-factor by design
Your Master Password is paired with a machine-generated Access Key carrying ~155 bits of entropy — well beyond the NIST 128-bit minimum. A guessed password alone unlocks nothing.
Per-vault isolation
Each vault is sealed with its own random Data Encryption Key. Breaking into one vault yields zero leverage against the next — there is no master skeleton key on our side.
AES-256-GCM, and beyond
Your primary vault is always AES-256-GCM authenticated encryption. Team, Business, and Enterprise plans unlock ChaCha20-Poly1305, AES-256-CBC-HMAC, and XChaCha20-Poly1305.
Tamper-evident envelopes
Authenticated encryption means any modification to your ciphertext is detected and rejected on decryption. Corrupted or tampered data never silently makes it into your vault.
Signed, replay-proof requests
Every API request is signed with HMAC-SHA256 and carries a single-use nonce. A captured request cannot be replayed, and HSTS pins the connection to strict transport security.
Abuse blocked at the edge
Brute-force and credential-stuffing attempts are throttled at the network layer — repeated failures from an IP trigger automatic, time-boxed blocks before they ever reach your vault.
The strongest key is the one we never hold
Start with a free vault and experience zero-knowledge security without sacrificing usability.
Create Your Free Vault